Izamal is a town of about 27,000 in the Yucatan, 70km east of Merida, and almost every building in its centre is painted the same ochre yellow. It calls itself the City of Three Cultures, which for once is not a tourist-board phrase but a literal description of the ground: pre-Hispanic Maya pyramids, a sixteenth century Franciscan convent built on top of one of them, and a living Yucatecan town using both.
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What Is Here
THE CONVENT SITS ON A MAYA PLATFORM AND NOBODY TRIED TO HIDE IT. The Convento de San Antonio de Padua was begun in 1549 on the levelled base of the Pap-Hol-Chac pyramid, using the pyramid's own stone. Its atrium, the enormous walled courtyard in front of the church, is around 7,800 square metres and is routinely described as the largest of its kind in the Americas and second in the world only to St Peter's in Rome. The image at the top of this post is that complex from the air, and it is the only way to grasp the scale of it: standing in the atrium you cannot see the whole thing at once.
The arcade that runs around the atrium has 75 arches and is the single most photogenic structure in the Yucatan at about five in the afternoon, when the light turns the ochre to gold.
POPE JOHN PAUL II CAME HERE IN 1993, to meet indigenous representatives from across the Americas, and the convent holds a monument to the visit. THE PAPAL VISIT IS ALSO THE EXPLANATION YOU WILL BE GIVEN FOR THE YELLOW PAINT, that the town was painted in the Vatican's colours for his arrival, AND IT IS CONTESTED. Other accounts have the ochre long predating 1993, tied to local pigment and to the convent's own colour, with the 1993 visit prompting a comprehensive repaint rather than the original choice. Both versions circulate locally. We mention it because it is the first thing anybody will tell you and because it is worth knowing the story is not settled.
The second and third images are the ordinary streets, which is the point: this is not one restored showpiece block but a whole town in one colour, lived in rather than curated, with bicycles and laundry and shops in it.
KINICH KAKMO IS CLIMBABLE AND IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN. The pyramid dedicated to the solar deity is the largest structure in Izamal and among the largest by volume in the Yucatan, roughly 200 metres on a side at the base, and it sits three blocks from the main square behind a row of houses. You walk up it. There is no ticket desk, there are no handrails, the steps are high and irregular, and the view from the top takes in the convent, the town and flat scrub to the horizon. Several smaller mounds, including Itzamatul and El Conejo, are scattered through the same grid.
THE HORSE-DRAWN CALESAS ARE THE LOCAL TRANSPORT AND ALSO A QUESTION. Carriages wait on the main square and run a circuit of the town. They are genuinely part of Izamal's streetscape and a driver's living. They also work in Yucatecan heat, and whether to take one is a judgement each visitor should make with that in view rather than by default.
Izamal is a hammock and a handicraft town. Yucatecan hammocks are woven here, as are papier mache figures and silver work, and the Centro Cultural y Artesanal on the square is the place to understand what you are buying before you buy it in a market.
It is a Pueblo Magico, one of the federal programme's earliest, and the designation is visible in the signage and the maintained paint rather than in anything artificial.
ONE HONEST NOTE ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS. Izamal is thinly represented in the stock libraries. We have the convent from the air and two streets. What we do not have is the atrium arcade from inside, the calesas on the square, or Kinich Kakmo, which is the oldest and most remarkable thing in the town, and we would rather name those gaps than let three yellow walls stand in for all of it.
When to Go
November to March is the season. Dry, with daytime temperatures in the high twenties and comfortable evenings.
April and May are the hottest months of the Yucatecan year, regularly over 35 degrees with high humidity and no sea breeze this far inland, and they are genuinely hard going for walking a town or climbing a pyramid.
June to October is the rainy season and overlaps the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November. Izamal is 70km inland, so the risk here is heavy rain, flooding and disrupted travel rather than storm surge.
GO LATE IN THE DAY FOR THE COLOUR. The ochre is flat and bleached at midday and remarkable from about four thirty onwards. Most day-trippers from Merida arrive mid-morning and leave by two, so staying a night gets you the best light and an empty square.
The town's patron saint festivals cluster around early December and early April, and they fill the square.
Getting There
By car from Merida, about an hour on good roads, and the same from Valladolid.
By bus, frequent second-class services from Merida's Noreste terminal take an hour and a quarter, and colectivos run the same route.
By organised tour, Izamal is commonly combined with Chichen Itza or with a cenote, which works but gives you the town in the wrong light.
The centre is small and entirely walkable. The convent, the square and Kinich Kakmo are within five minutes of each other, and the only reason for wheels is reaching a cenote outside town.
IZAMAL IS A BETTER OVERNIGHT THAN A DAY TRIP, and that is the one strong recommendation this post makes. There are a handful of small hotels on and near the square, the evening light is the whole point, and the town after the coaches leave is a different and much better place.
Is Izamal Safe for Women?
Izamal is a small, quiet Yucatecan town and is among the safer places in Mexico to travel. The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for Mexico, and being precise about them matters more here than almost anywhere, because the country is large and the restrictions are specific rather than general. It advises against all but essential travel to the cities of Tijuana and Tecate in Baja California, to the areas of Guanajuato south-west of road 45D, to most of the state of Michoacan with named exceptions for Morelia and Patzcuaro reached by toll road, to the parts of Jalisco south and south-west of Lake Chapala and eleven northern municipalities, to the state of Colima except Manzanillo reached by air or sea, to the state of Guerrero except Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa reached by air, to a 40km strip of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, to one stretch of Federal Highway 199, and to the city of Acapulco. That last one appears on the safety and security subpage rather than in the landing page list, which is exactly why you should read both. None of those areas includes this destination. Read the current advice yourself before you travel, because the list is revised regularly.
YUCATAN STATE CARRIES NO FCDO ADVISED-AGAINST AREA AND IS CONSISTENTLY AMONG THE LOWEST-CRIME STATES IN MEXICO, and that deserves saying plainly. The named restrictions in Mexico's advisory are elsewhere entirely: Michoacan, Guerrero, Colima, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and the border cities. None of it reaches the Yucatan peninsula's interior.
THE PYRAMID IS THE HAZARD AND THERE IS NOTHING TO HOLD. Kinich Kakmo has no handrail, no barrier at the top, high uneven steps worn round at the edges, and loose stone. It is open, unsupervised and free, which is part of its charm and the whole of its risk. Climb it in proper shoes, come down facing the way you came, and do not do it in the rain.
Heat is the thing that actually spoils trips here. There is little shade on the streets, the convent atrium is a vast unshaded expanse, and the pyramid is bare stone in full sun.
The streets have high kerbs, uneven pavements and open drainage in places, which is normal for the region and is worth noticing after dark.
Mosquitoes carry dengue in the Yucatan, with a real seasonal rise in the rains. Repellent at dusk is the answer.
The Izamal Packing List
Heat, humidity, strong sun, a bare stone climb and a lot of walking on uneven streets.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is a better hot-climate choice than most people expect: in the Yucatan the problem is not cold but sun and sweat, and a fine merino layer covers your arms through a day in the convent atrium and on the pyramid while moving moisture off your skin instead of holding it the way cotton does. It also goes several days in a humid climate without turning, which matters when laundry is not easy.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat and a long sun hoodie. The atrium and the pyramid have no shade at all.
Walking shoes with grip and Darn Tough merino socks: the Kinich Kakmo steps are the reason, and the town's pavements are the second reason.
DEET insect repellent for dusk, because dengue is present in the Yucatan and the mosquitoes here are an evening problem rather than a jungle one, and a large insulated water bottle, which in April heat is not optional.
Not linked and worth packing: SOMETHING TO COVER YOUR SHOULDERS AND KNEES for the church, which is in daily use; CASH IN PESOS, since card acceptance in a town this size is patchy outside the hotels; A SMALL TORCH for streets with uneven surfaces and modest lighting; and AN EMPTY SOFT BAG if you intend to buy a hammock, because a good Yucatecan hammock is bulky and the woven ones sold here are the real thing rather than the resort version.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Izamal
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, the single national number, free from any phone. English-speaking operators are available in the tourist states but are not guaranteed everywhere.
The single best piece of advice for Izamal is to stay the night rather than coming for the day, because the ochre that the whole town is painted in is flat at midday and extraordinary after about half past four, and the coaches from Merida have gone by two. KINICH KAKMO IS CLIMBABLE, FREE AND COMPLETELY UNSUPERVISED, with high worn steps, no handrail and no barrier at the top: it is the realistic injury risk here and it is not one in wet weather or smooth soles. THE CONVENT ATRIUM AND THE PYRAMID HAVE NO SHADE, and April and May regularly exceed 35 degrees with high humidity 70km from the sea. THE CHURCH IS IN DAILY USE and modest dress is expected. DENGUE IS PRESENT IN THE YUCATAN, so use repellent at dusk. HURRICANE SEASON RUNS JUNE TO NOVEMBER and inland the consequence is heavy rain and disrupted roads rather than surge. CARD ACCEPTANCE IS PATCHY, so carry pesos. The yellow-paint story you will be told about the 1993 papal visit is the common account and is contested locally.
US State Department travel advisory: the Mexico advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mexico, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital or clinic: Izamal has a small IMSS clinic and a health centre for routine problems. Anything serious means Merida, an hour west, which has the best hospitals on the peninsula including large private facilities used to treating visitors. Private hospitals expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front. Dial 911. Private hospitals in the large Mexican cities are good and expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front, so carry your policy number where you can reach it rather than in the bottom of a bag. Public clinics will treat an emergency. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere in the country: drink bottled or purified water, which every hotel and restaurant supplies as a matter of course, and take the same care with ice and raw salad that you would with the water itself.
Official health authority: the Secretaria de Salud, Mexico's federal health ministry. covers the Yucatan state health services and publishes the dengue situation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Mexico City.
Official tourism authority: the Secretaria de Turismo, Mexico's federal tourism ministry. with state information from the Yucatan tourism secretariat, which publishes the convent and Centro Cultural hours and the patron saint festival dates
Takeaways
Stay the night. The colour only works after four thirty.
Climb Kinich Kakmo. It is free, unfenced and three blocks from the square.
See the atrium arcade in the late sun. Seventy five arches.
The papal-colours story is the common one and is not settled. Enjoy it anyway.
Solo women safety assessment: Izamal is one of the most comfortable destinations in this batch for a woman travelling alone. It is a town of 27,000 in Yucatan state, which carries no FCDO advised-against designation and is consistently among the lowest-crime states in Mexico, and the centre is a handful of blocks where the square, the convent and the pyramid are all within five minutes of each other and everybody is visible to everybody. Walking the streets in the evening is ordinary, there is no district to avoid, and the realistic crime risk is opportunistic theft from an unattended bag rather than anything directed. 911 IS THE SINGLE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER, free from any phone, with English not guaranteed in a town this size, so having your accommodation's number saved is worth more than it sounds. MEDICALLY, Izamal has a small clinic for routine matters and anything serious means Merida an hour west, which has the best hospitals on the peninsula, so the practical rule is that an ordinary problem is handled locally and a real one is a car journey. THE THING MOST LIKELY TO HURT YOU IS THE PYRAMID. Kinich Kakmo is free, open, unstaffed and unfenced, with high irregular steps worn smooth and rounded at the edges and no barrier at the top, and it is in the middle of a residential grid rather than inside a managed archaeological site. That is a large part of why it is worth climbing and the entire reason to climb it in grippy shoes, in dry weather, and to descend the way you came up rather than turning to face out. HEAT IS THE SECOND REAL FACTOR: the convent atrium is nearly eight thousand square metres of unshaded stone, the pyramid is bare rock in full sun, and April and May here are brutal, so a hat, covered arms and water are the difference between a good day and a miserable one. Use repellent at dusk for dengue, carry pesos because cards are patchy, and take a small torch for pavements that are uneven and modestly lit.
Reading On
Izamal sits in the middle of the Yucatan's colonial and Maya circuit. The Merida packing list covers the regional capital an hour west that most visitors base in, and the Valladolid packing list the other colonial town on the same road east, with its cenotes. On the coast, the Tulum packing list, Playa del Carmen packing list, Cancun packing list, Isla Mujeres packing list and Cozumel packing list cover the Caribbean side, with the Bacalar packing list and Mahahual packing list on the quieter Costa Maya in the south. West, the Campeche packing list covers the walled Gulf city and the Palenque packing list and San Cristobal de las Casas packing list reach into Chiapas. For the country, the Mexico travel guide for women and the Mexico packing list carry the transport, the regions and the advisory geography in full. For why fine wool works in heat and humidity rather than against it, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
